The Travel Emails...

The Arrival | The Newsflash | The Recovery | The Rain | The Cow | The Fairwell

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Delhi-- India 4, Tim and Nora 2

India was stunned when the young challengers jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the game with an easy transition from the airport to a clean hotel. It seems that this early tally served to wake the potent offense of the venerable India which responded in kind with 4 quick tallies. A young striker by the name of Jet Lagg put India on the board early, greatly disrupting team TimNora's sleep patterns. In an effort to mount a counter attack, the challengers planned a quick get away to the Taj Mahal only to discover, while on board the 6 am train awaiting its departure, that the palace is actually closed on Fridays, causing the visitors to mount a last second evasive maneuver, postponing their trip to Agra for a latter date.

India 2, Visitors 1

Upon regrouping and replanning their tour of the North, the challengers got refunds on train tickets, booked an early Saturday morning trip to Jaipur, followed by an overnight train to Agra, getting them back on Sunday night, in time for their Monday flight to Bombay.

Upon arriving in Jaipur, the duo was hit by a formidable Indian pair. The forward known only as Heat was able to tally on a brilliant cross from G.I. Angst (That's G.I. Joe's lesser known relative gastrointestinal angst).

India 3, Visitors 1

This tally was quickly followed up by a sneak attack by Air India who informed us that rather than a 1 pm flight on Monday, we would have to take a 5 am flight for which we would have to be at the airport at 2:30 on Sunday night. India 4, Visitors 1.

Though on the ropes, the visitors borrowed a tactic from the play book of the immortal coach, Austin Zimmer. It reads, and I quote, "there are no problems that can't be fixed by money!" In a surprise move, the challengers abandoned all travel plans, hopped in a rickshaw, and were pedaled to a beautiful palace hotel where they slept for 15 hours, regrouped, and restrategized. 

India 4, Visitors 2 

This is where we leave off... the mighty struggle for hegemony has begun... the travelers have scrapped their AirIndia ticket and decided to bypass Bombay all together and head straight by plane to the beach resorts of Goa, where they will plan their next attack. As this reporter writes, it is Monday night. The duo, it is reported, plans to make another run at Agra in an effort to spend Tim's Birthday at the Taj Majal, though they go armed with a secret weapon... half a days hotel room booked for a respite when the travelers suffer their afternoon low! If we do not learn from our mistakes then we are doomed to repeat them! So, it is here that we leave the game, travelers trailing 4-2, yet in good spirits and eager for their Wednesday (7/23 12 pm India Air [that's for you mom and dad]) flight to Goa. Where this reporter hopes to log in a further update. 

Be well, as our travelers are!

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Calangute, Goa (Southwestern India) 

What a difference a week makes. When I last wrote, Nora and I were in Delhi, and pretty much hanging on by a thread. We both went a few days without eating, we were weak, overwhelmed, and still trying to maintain our original plan of seeing Agra and Jaipur. Well, we made it to both those cities, and, while Jaipur was not as beautiful as we had hoped, the Taj Mahal lived up to its reputation. The building itself is hidden once you get onto the property, and you pass through an old doorway before it reveals itself. The day was so hot, and we had about enough energy for 15 minutes of moving around before we would have to stop and rest; however, the building was spectacular. Well worth the effort that it took to get there. As I believe I mentioned in my last email, we had decided to scrap our plans to fly to Bombay en route to Goa, and just fly directly from Delhi to Goa. The decision was a great one. Because it is the off season here in Calangute, the hotels all have pretty much halved their rates. The first two nights, we spent in a beautiful room with a huge balcony overlooking the ocean. We moved hotels to be more centrally located. Now our hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the beach, but it is a large room (or suite even) with a television, and the hotel has a beautiful pool. We have just been recovering here, getting our appetites back, and enjoying the natural beauty of Goa. Because of the monsoons, the ocean is way too rough for swimming, but the temperature is totally manageable. We get pretty good downpours a few times a day, but they are short lived and quite refreshing. I wish I had more exciting things to report, but, to be honest, it just feels so good not to be sick! On Tuesday, we are planning to leave our little paradise here and head to Mysore, both south and east of here. Mysore is known for its silk, sandalwood, and incents, so we will see what kind of shopping we can get done there! From there, we plan to head to Kochi, then over to the East Coast. 

I guess that’s all the update I have for now, at this interminably slow computer! 

Hope you all are well, T

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Mysore, Karnataka… 

It is through great hardship that I am able to write you all this email (and welcome to the new members of the list!) as I had to brave the pouring rain and untold (though I am about to tell you, to be sure) ridicule en route to this email locale. You see, as I have known for some time, yet am amused at how quickly I forget, I am a westerner. This is a source of endless attention here in India. In fact, Nora (as females tend to hold a higher status than males as far as westerners are concerned) has been followed at different times with an almost celebrity like appeal. Indians have stopped and asked to take their pictures with us (her, but they get me on the side!). So, my best efforts to blend, which don’t go very far to begin with, are totally abandoned when it rains. Though, I must also let you know that Nora, quite “nobly” offered to stay in our cozy hotel room and guard the fort, while I braved the storm in an effort to deliver this news update. Back to the point… Though nowhere near as filthy as Delhi, Mysore, when wet, will still ruin your most recent efforts to wash your pants, as the mud that covers the streets is a bear to get out of fabric. As a result, I left my hotel wearing shorts, my lily-white legs a beacon through the dark Karnatakan rain for all to ridicule. Add to my costume a t-shirt, and cover my body in a poncho – not just any poncho mind you, but a 99 cent Duane Reade special, that is nothing more than a cellophane garbage bag, not transparent enough to go unnoticed, yet unlike any garment the people of Mysore have ever seen. Finally, my hat. My hat. Once a proud Indiana Jones meets LL Bean style cover that protects both from sun and rain, now, after being folded in my various back-packs for two weeks, resembles a poorly-constructed origami crane with a broken wing. It is in this outfit that I am met half with laughter, and half with the ever present “helloooo… taxi… Helloooo Hotel…. Where you from?,,,” that seems to follow Nora and me wherever we go. 

So, now that you all fully appreciate what it took to get here, let me say that we are both doing well here in India. Nora’s stomach problems have gone away; however, mine seem to be cyclical. Feeling better for a while, I have spent the last two days, well, not so happy in the interest of keeping this email somewhat polite. Though I will say, I have gotten over my fears of the squat-toilet, and have found I am really quite good at it, when the need arises. Anyway, we arrived here in Mysore (as in My Sore Butt after the 23 hours it took us to get here!) on Tuesday night after… leaving Calangute at 10 in a taxi to Margao, a car trip that lasted one hour, 15 minutes. Our 12am, 6 hour train to Mangalore did not arrive in Margao until 4 am, and did not get to Mangalore until 11 am. We then caught a 7 hour bus trip through the mountains (that lasted 8 hours) and got us to Mysore at 9pm. We found our hotel, spent the night, then (borrowing from an earlier strategy that served us well) promptly upgraded to a nicer hotel the next day. We have spent the last day exploring Mysore, a town known for its sandalwood and silk. Though we have joked that the word “charming” should only be used in the Lonely Planet India with quotation marks around it, we have found the town to be managable, and enjoyable. It has one of the most beautiful vegetable markets I have ever seen, and we have been eating lots of bananas, natures perfect fruit! There is also a beautiful palace here which we will visit tomorrow. On Sunday afternoon, we will be taking a train to Bangalore, followed by an over-night train to Kochin, in the state of Kerrala, back on the west coast. So, as you can tell, we are still in good spirits, though I am reeling from the cruelest gastrointestinal joke that I have ever suffered… to be in a place where the food is so good, and so cheap, yet to feel nauseous at the thought of eating is quite unfair! Having a traveling companion that can’t seem to pass an opportunity to sample the local sweets (or at least point out how great the look) is just insult to injury. 

I guess I will end this email here, but know also that your responses to me have been great, and although I have not been doing much individual corresponding, I love getting them! 

Be well, Tim

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Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu 

MAN FINDS HIMSELF IN RELATIONSHIP DOGHOUSE WHEN GIRLFRIEND'S COLLISION WITH COW STRIKES HIM AS HUMOROUS... 

Throughout the many physical maladies that have befallen Nora in our time in India, I think that I have maintained an admirable level of both sympathy and empathy. When Nora was shocked at the various bathroom light fixtures that prey on her (yet leave me electromagnetically uncharged) I have been appropriately concerned. When she nearly collapsed from the heat in Jaipur, did I make fun of her for wanting to continue to the palace when she couldn’t even stand up? No. When she stepped in various puddles of who-knows-what, I didn’t so much as chortle. Nor did I laugh through her various stumbles and one fall on the uneven sidewalks that abound all over India. When she threw up on a train, or when she developed some strange rash on her arms (probably from the heat), I wasn’t even tempted to smile, I was only concerned. But when the cow butted her thigh as she passed it on the streets of Madurai the other day, well, it was too much for me. 

You see, we have often joked about some of the choices that we are faced with on the streets here. One of our favorites is the choice between the oncoming rickshaw, or cow. This was the choice that Nora faced on the street, and as she, evidently, came a little to close to the cow, it turned its head into her and gave her one heck of a bruise on her leg. 

As David Letterman once (erroneously, as this story proves) stated in his list of top ten reasons you know you are not going to finish the New York Marathon, “instead of the eye of the tiger, you have the dull stare of the dairy cow.” Well, let me warn you, don’t let that dull stare fool you. They may not look like they’re not processing much, but beneath that gaze, there is a thirst for blood (or at least bruise!) So when the collision occurred, I lost it. In fact, I can’t even type this story without giggling here in the internet café. As Gary Larson knows, a cow is funny. I don’t know why, (nor does Nora) but it is. After all the difficulty we have had, it just seemed too perfect for the bovine community to chime in with a well-timed blow. Though she was initially shocked, Nora is healing well, with one technicolor mark on her leg to show for the encounter. 

Other than that, things have really been going well for us. I think the last time I wrote, we were in Mysore,which was a really fun little town to visit. It was there that my stomach woes began to abate, and it was also there that I had one of the best meals of my life. It was a little joint, where the plate is a plantain leaf, they heap spoonfuls of rice, different foods, and sauces onto your leaf like a paint palate, and you just mix and mush, all with your hands. It was quite fun and delicious. 

From Mysore, we traveled by overnight train to Kochin in the state of Kerrala. The trains here in India are great. They are comfortable, and the food choices are wonderful. As you can see, I am making up for lost meals! They walk up and down the isles hawking coffee, chi, and scrumptious little morsels. Kochi was really nice. It is a city divided by water, and you have to take ferries to get around. The old Fort Cochin felt like a European city. From Kochin, we went to Madurai, which has what I am calling the Disneyland of the Hindu religion. It is really too difficult to describe the architecture, but there were people praying in every which direction. People prostrating to stuff all over the place! There was even an enormous statue of Shiva and his wife at which people threw little balls of butter (available for 4 cents) in theory to cool off the dancing gods. Very cool. We also each did a bit of clothes shopping there, choosing fabrics, and having the garments made from them. From Madurai, yesterday, we came to Pondicherry where we are planning to relax for a little bit. We have been running around nonstop for a while, and need a break. Pondicherry is on the East coast, a few hours south of Chennai, and it has a distinctively French feel. We are looking forward to eating some non-indian food here, and we already had sandwiches on Baguettes for lunch. I guess that is about all for now, from here, we go to Mamalapuram, then to Chennai. We fly to Bombay on the 27th, then to New York on the 28th. 

I hope that you all are doing well! 

Tim

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Well, the journey is coming to a close, and I fear that I have run out of witty reports! I actually wouldn't be writing at all, but I wanted to let everybody know that Nora and I were not in Bombay when the bombs went off. We missed them by two days. We fly to Bombay on the 27th, then leave for the US on the 28th. We leave at 7:20 am, and arrive 18 1/2 hours later at 430 in the afternoon. Go figure!

But I couldn't close out my report without an update on pending stories. For those who are wondering, Nora's bruise has healed nicely and I am out of the doghouse for laughing, though I am poised to enter again whenever the topic comes up). My stomach is looking forward to being home, though I must say, it has not stopped me from eating heartily these last few weeks. Our luggage had babies, a set of twins actually, named nike and polo (at least that's what the guy on the street told us) and they will be put to use for the flight home. (Parents are doing fine, in case you were worried). And the scoreboard... Well, I lost count a long time ago but I will say this... as difficult as Delhi was, it certainly prepared us for the rest of the trip as Chennai, where we have spent the last few days, has seemed like Rye (Rye translates to Potomac in Washingtonese for my Maryland friends) in comparison. So, that's it for now... I hope you are all well, and I am looking forward to catching up on the phone and in person where and when possible. 

Namaske Tim

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